I just wanted to write this post to talk about a topic that needs no introduction, Smurfing and Boosting. It's well known that Smurfing and Boosting is a big issue in VALORANT, now the Riot Games developers have made a move against it but no matter what it will still exist, not just in VALORANT but in any game that has a Competitive gamemode. If i'm not mistaken, the developers have implemented a system where in Competitive, any player who's individual performance is significantly higher compared to the rest of the players in the server will be boosted in Rank so that they will arrive at their supposed Rank faster which helps balance out the playing field to provide more enjoyment. As for things that are out of their control, it's the community, it's the players, so please just take your time to understand what i'm trying to get across. Now what i'm about to say has been mentioned by mutiple figures in the Content Creation industry, whether it's YouTubers, Twitch streamers or other people posting on other Social Media Platforms such as Twitter and such. So as for why it's bad to Smurf and Boost, let's start with Smuring. Smurfing is when a player either Reverse Boosts (intentionally losing games to go down in Rank) in order to be able to play against players of a lower skill than themselves, or maybe to play with their friends who aren't at the same Rank as them. Now the developers have taken action towards Reverse Boosting to where if a player goes on a certain amount of loss streaks, their account might get banned. So the reason why Smurfing is bad is because the players on the lower Ranks will not be able to enjoy playing the game as much, since they're just getting waxed constantly by that one Smurf in the enemy team, but at the same time it changes the thought process of the team who has the Smurf since they're going to win so that might put an image in their head that Smurfing is not that bad. Now onto Boosting, which is a term where players either just constantly Smurf with their friends in order to help them get higher Ranks even though they might not deserve it yet. There's also a specific Boosting strategy which is called a Jockey service, which is where a player uses someone else's account who's already at a lower Rank and they actually play the matches for them to help them rank up, in Indonesia where i'm from they even have Jockey services for sale on Instagram and such, where a player can get paid for Boosting another player's account to a certain Rank for a certain price. I don't know about other countries but it's an existing issue which is really toxic that people seem to ignore. The reason why Boosting (specifically Jockey services) is bad is because when the player who owns the boosted account comes back to play his/her account, they'll be matched up against players they can't handle, which ruins the fun for them because it's difficult, but on the flipside, it ruins the game for the team which has that Boosted player on their team because they will have to put up serious numbers on the scoreboard to Carry the boosted player. Personally, i'm not targetting anyone but personally in my own community of friends i usually play VALORANT with, they seem to think it's ok to constantly borrow and lend each others accounts just to be able to play with a specific player because their own accounts are not high enough in Rank, i understand that all they want to do is play with friends, but there's an Unrated gamemode for that. And at the same time i see it very often where when a certain player in the group asks if anyone is up for a couple games of VALORANT, the players who's Ranks are too low to pair up with that one player who's asking for a premade just asks for another player's account so they can still play. It's a really toxic trait which ruins the game even if it's at a micro scale. Because if you think about it, it's very hipocritical when someone says "Why are people Smurfing?" when they face Smurfs in a game, but at the same time, they use other accounts which have a lower Rank and are basically doing the same thing. And as for the player who uses an account that has a higher Rank than their own skill, they'll literally be hurting everyone like i said above, both parties which includes themselves and others. Players who's account is boosted will also think they deserve a Rank they don't which will blur the line of where their actual skill lies. For me personally, i'm really against both Smurfing and Boosting. And when i'm playing with my friends, i make a personal effort to help the community even if it's through small acts. So for instance, when i'm playing with my buddies, in the group i only mention a couple players who i actually want to play with that i know can actually queue up with me in terms of their Ranks, instead of mentioning everyone in the group like some of my friends. When someone who's Rank is too low to queue up with me asks if they can play with me, i usually either say that the lobby is full (even if it's not) or i just tell them straight up that the Rank difference is too far for us to queue up, and usually they'll say that it's fine they'll just borrow someone else's account, and then i'll reply with a "Nah it's fine, you don't have to use another person's account." Now this literally happened yesterday which shed more light on the topic which then pushed me to write about it. Because here's the thing, that person got mad and just replied with a "Ohh, you don't want to play with me, that's fine then." I really wanna stress that i am by no means being arrogant when i say stuff like "Our Rank difference is too far to queue up together." I'm not a Radiant player, nor am i a Professional either. My highest Rank was only a Diamond 01, so it's nothing to brag about. And i personally don't have anything against my friend as a person, if we meet in real life i'm completely cool with him. But the way he responded really made me realize the immaturity in not being able to understand why i'm doing what i'm doing. I stand my ground and if there's a potential Smurfing or Boosting going on that's in my control, like in my friend community, i won't let it slide. I really want to help VALORANT do well as CS:GO and many other games failed in this department before. Another thing which pushed me to write this aside from my friend's response was yesterday when i was playing with my account, my account was Platinum 01 in Rank, and i was queued up with a couple other friends with a mix of high Gold, middle and high Platinum players. But on the loading screen, i saw that one of the enemy had an Act Rank of Immortal 02, which really saddened me, but i didn't complain about it too much and tried my best, even though we lost after an overtime landing on a 12-14 scoreline, i tried my best and i didn't just give up before the match even started, but i was just upset about the Smurfing and Boosting situation. Not too long ago i even saw a Twitter post saying that using other people's accounts might get you banned. So here's my long take on this, hope you guys make an initiative to help VALORANT become a better game for everyone, no matter how small or big your effort is, it will still count. Thanks.
